Current Program (2 Days a Week, 12-Week Restart)

Assumptions

• 172cm, 70kg. Trained 4 days a week for 3–4 years, then took 3–4 years off, and now restarting
• 2 days a week. The goal is to build muscle
• No legs (personal choice. Skipping Leg Training)
• Small appetite (Gaining Weight with a Small Appetite)

Why it is set up this way

• 2 days a week, full body: at the same weekly volume, a split and full-body training give the same hypertrophy. With only 2 sessions a week, training every muscle each session lets you hit each one twice a week (Volume and Frequency)
• Volume: 8–12 sets per muscle per week. Returns shrink as volume rises, and 5–10 sets per week is the most efficient. Right after a restart, you can grow on even less
• How to restart: start light for the first 2 weeks. This greatly reduces the soreness and muscle damage that follow (Returning After a Long Break)
• Effort: RIR 1–2 is enough. Training to failure gives about the same hypertrophy and only adds fatigue (Effort, Load, and Rest)
• Exercises: prioritize ones that load the muscle in its stretched position (Range of Motion and Exercise Selection)

Schedule

Alternate Day A and Day B. Leave at least 2 days between sessions (e.g., Mon A and Thu B, or Tue A and Sat B). Fixed days make it easier to stick with (A System for Keeping a Log).

Weeks	Goal	Sets	RIR
Week 1	Ease in. Relearn form and get a feel for the weights	2 sets of each exercise in the tables below	3–4
Week 2	Ease in	2 sets of each exercise	2–3
Weeks 3–8	Main phase	As in the tables below	Compounds 1–2, isolation 0–1
Weeks 9–12	Push further	If you are still progressing, +1 set each day for lateral raises and arms	Same as above

For the first 2 weeks, don’t train to failure, and don’t do drop sets or slow eccentrics. Starting light greatly reduces soreness and muscle damage from week 3 on. This protection fades after a 3-week gap, so don’t take time off in the first few weeks (Returning After a Long Break).

If your urine turns cola-colored, or your arms swell badly and hurt, get medical care right away.

Exercises

Exercises, sets, reps and rest times are on the workout screen at the top of this page. The source is program/plan.json. Day A is about 18 sets and 60–70 minutes; Day B is about 20 sets and 65–75 minutes. Short on time, drop one set each of reverse pec deck and the arm exercises on Day B.

Weekly sets (weeks 3–8)

Synergist muscles counted as 0.5 sets.

Muscle	Direct	Synergist (×0.5)	Total
Back	12	0	12
Chest	10	0	10
Biceps	4	6 (pulls)	10
Triceps	4	4 (presses)	8
Side delts	6	0	6
Rear delts	2	3 (rows)	5
Front delts	0	4 (presses)	4

Every muscle stays at 6 sets or fewer per session. From week 9, add sets for the side and rear delts to bring them to around 8.

Progression

• Double progression: when every set reaches the top of the rep range at the target RIR, add weight next session. Add 2.5kg on barbells, or one step on dumbbells and cables
• For the first few weeks after a restart, the weight will go up almost every session. This is mainly your strength and feel for form coming back. Whether muscle size comes back faster up to where it was is unknown for breaks of several years
• If an exercise shows no progress in reps or weight for 2 weeks in a row, the weekly review will flag it. First check sleep and food. If it still stalls, swap the exercise
• After 12 weeks, look at the log and rebuild the program

Diet

For details, see Gaining Weight with a Small Appetite, Protein, and Supplements.

• Calories: start at maintenance +300–400 kcal. If your 7-day average weight is not rising by at least 0.2kg per week, add 150–200 kcal every 2–3 weeks. Aim for no more than 0.35kg per week
• Protein: 112–126g a day (1.6–1.8 g/kg). More than this adds almost no muscle and fills you up, making it harder to hit your total calories
• Liquid calories: they fill you up less than solid food. Adding one of the shakes below a day gives about 700 kcal and about 40g of protein
• Creatine: 5g daily. Put it in the shake
• Sleep: at least 7 hours

Example shake (about 700 kcal, about 42g protein):

Ingredient	Amount	kcal	Protein
Milk	400ml	~270	13g
Oats	40g	~150	5g
Banana	1	~90	1g
Peanut butter	1 tbsp	~95	4g
Whey protein	1 scoop (25g)	~100	20g

You often won’t feel hungry right after training. Don’t wait for hunger. Drink it as soon as you get home.

Review schedule

• Weekly: in the weekly review, check sets, progress, and the 7-day average body weight
• Every 4 weeks: measure your waist (at the navel). If your waist grows 1cm or more per 1kg of weight gained, cut calories a little
• At 12 weeks: rebuild the whole program